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b2mem2019-03-03 10:15 pm
The Riven Dell
Format: Short Story
Genre: Gapfiller, General
Rating: General
Warnings: Mentions of Illness and Death
Characters: Elrond
Pairings: None
Summary: Elrond had never seen any place more beautiful in spring than this riven valley.
The Riven Dell
26th of Ethuil in the 1697th Year of the Second Age:
Elrond had never seen any place more beautiful in spring than this riven valley.
The whole country was musical with the roar of the waterfalls. The snow in the peaks had melted, sending mountains of water cascading into the valley, swelling the creeks and streams that feed into the Bruinen. Winter’s surcease led to a riot of color. In the shade of blooming crabapples and cherries, the fringed violet bells of blue moonwort nodded in the breeze. In the meads, white flowered stalks of mountain valerian arose from verdurous carpets of lady's mantle and sweet vernal grass. Most stunning of all, were the fire lilies. With their vibrant orange and yellow blooms it seemed as if the meadows were dotted with burring torches.
Elrond shifted the basket on his arm, carefully picking his way around a moss-slick boulder. The air was perfumed with the scent of lilacs that grew in thickets here at the base of the valley’s northern cliff-face. Past rock falls had formed a hill of large rocks and talus twice the size of an edhel. From here he could see most of the encampment nestled above the north bank of the river. It mostly consisted of semi-subterranean dwellings made from saplings, woven together like a basket, over a waist-deep pit. The dome roofs, waterproofed with strips of white birch, looked like giant mushrooms against the verdant ground. It was the sort of shelter the Nandor overwintered in.
They would have all perished if it were not for the knowlage of the Laegrim that had lived in the lands near the Hithaeglir since before the rising of the Sun and Moon.
Both his and Celeborn’s companies had been forced to take refuge in this valley early last Laer after they lost Tharbad and its bridge, being unable to defend the Gwathir. Most of Minhiriath was now overrun with the Enemy’s forces, its native inhabitants sympathetic to his cause. That would have been bad enough for they lacked supplies to sustain them throughout the winter. Yet those edain that sustained themselves farming the floodplains of the Mitheithel had cast their lot with the edhil, considering them allies after yéni of mutual trade with Eregion. Thus they had been compelled to harbor several thousand Mortal refugees along with the Silvan of the region.
Winter had been hard. The Men had been forced to flee ere their crops were ripe, bring what livestock they could. They had managed to scrounge enough seed corn to sow some acres of wheat and rye in early Firith, and had been glad of it. Even though it meant enduring the cold, merger seasons of Rhîw and Echuir without grain. They had survived like Nandor, subsisting on porridge made from beechnuts and acorns and what game could be hunted. After eight moons of such fare, the Mortals were obviously suffering. They did not bear privation as well as the hardier races. The lack of meat left many of them constantly fatigued, limbs unnaturally swollen.
The worst was the children.
The dearth of grains led to a condition he had not seen since the War of Wrath. The affected children were a pitiful sight, laying listless with inflamed, peeling skin about their hands and faces. Elrond thought he must have used bark from every blackthorn in the valley in combating these little ones’ watery bowels. He had gotten some of Celeborn’s scouts to search the surrounding highlands for mushrooms to treat those worst affected. Then there was the ceaseless bouts of catarrh that Men suffered during the cold seasons of the year. He felt as if he had done nothing but dose hundreds with infusions of silver fir needles since the first snows had fallen.
Elrond had cursed himself bitterly at every funeral pyre for not harvesting more medicamental herbs when they had been available.
However, the hard times were over. Now that the last of the frost was gone, the land was a veritable medicant chest. The meadows contained enough pheasant's eye and selfheal to treat the dropsy the malnourished suffered. Tormentil and burnet for the flux; nettle for those who had green sickness and lungwort for those with catarrh. It was the reason he was here, searching among the rocks, for the vibrant yellow flowers of bear's ear. The plant was used to cure coughs, which he desperately needed as it was too early in the year to harvest coltsfoot or ground ivy. He was reluctant to use his store of woodland angelica as the root was a potent treatment for lung fever.
Once his basket was full of the fleshy, ear-shaped leaves, Elrond climbed down the hill and made his way west towards the center of the valley. He passed by an acre they had planted before the autumn equinox, the green wheat reaching to mid-calf; it would be ready for reaping in around ten weeks. As he walked along the margins of the grain field, he spotted a grey partridge siting among the stalks. As he approached, the hen fled, emitting a rapid “Ker-ik-krrip-krrip!” Where she had been was a nest of eighteen tan eggs with brown speckles. Elrond smiled. It seemed the youngest occupants in his crude infirmary would be having eggs with their gruel today.
Perhaps, when this war was over he would stay in this valley of the cleft.
Glossary:
Edhel (Sindarin): ‘Elf’. Plural ‘Edhil’.
Laer (Sindarin): Elvish ‘season’ 72 days long corresponding from 22nd May-1st August
Firith (Sindarin): Elvish ‘season’ 54 days long corresponding from 28th September- 20th November
Rhîw (Sindarin): Elvish ‘season’ 72 days long corresponding from 21st November- 31st January
Echuir (Sindarin): Elvish ‘season’ 54 days long corresponding from 1st February- 26th March
Laegrim (Sindarin): Green Elves.
“…constantly fatigued, limbs unnaturally swollen.”: this is protein malnutrition (also known as Kwashiorkor). A common nutritional deficiency during famines, it is characterized by edema.
“…laying listless with inflamed, peeling skin…”: this is niacin deficiency (also known as Pellagra). Usually seen people who obtain most of their food energy from maize that has not been nixtamalized (other grains have plenty of niacin) or among refugees and homeless. A diet of acorns and beechnuts would be very low in niacin; mushrooms, being quite high in niacin, would help.
Catarrh (English): an archaic term for the various diseases we now refer to as: common cold, nasopharyngitis, pharyngitis, rhinitis, and sinusitis.
Flux (English): an archaic term for diarrhea or disease which causes diarrhea, especially dysentery.
Green sickness (English): an archaic term for anemia as it gives the complexion a greenish tinge.
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- Erulisse (one L)
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